Honestly, these pieces really surprised me. When Dr. Kardas first gave us the assignment, I assumed that the pieces were simple little four-minute short stories that would be a breeze to reflect upon. Boy was I wrong. The first piece that I read, “A Call for Unity,” surprised me in its blatant diregard of the suffering of their Black neighbors! The clergymen pretty much said: “It’s not so bad, even though we’re not the ones suffering and being oppressed. You can take the cold stares and outright hatred for a little while longer. It’ll all get sorted out eventually. Maybe.” I was like, “Guys, are you even listening to the words that are coming out of your brain and onto the paper? Do honestly believe this ignorant tripe? If you do, then I really pity anyone that knew you.” The fact that they were Christians really gave that faith a bad name back then. Aren’t they usually the ones who are preaching about everyone being a child of God and all people being equals in the eyes of God? You can’t preach acceptance to one group of people and turn around and discriminate against another group. That, sirs, is called a double standard and hypocrisy. There is enough of that in the world as it is without the preachers bringing it in to their sermons.
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was less of a thought provoking read to me. I had never really had the opportunity to read such an openly discriminatory passage like “A Call for Unity.” It really hit me how horribly people treated each other back then and to a lesser extent in the present. I had read some of Dr. King's work before so it didn’t really affect me as much as it would someone who had never read any of his work before. The thing that I like the most about any of Dr. King’s writings is that you can literally hear the passion for his subject in his words. His words and how they flow together have an almost hypnotic effect on a person’s point of view.
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